Central New York Fiber Festival

Skip and I have a tradition of taking a little trip in June. It used to be to celebrate the end of school and our wedding anniversary. This year, I learned of the Central New York Fiber Festival in Bouckville NY that was to take place on June 10 and 11. We planned our trip to coincide with that. This year's festival theme focused on the art of spinning.

There is no admission fee to the Festival at the Butternut Hill Campgrounds just on the east side of town on Rte. 20.

The first thing I saw when I walked in was a sheep shearing.

At the long tent used for demos and instruction. Garry Aney from Mohawk NY demonstrated the drop spindle with a bottom whorl spindle.

He also gave us a top whorl demo.

 There was a big tented area for childrens' activities. These were cashmere goat kids.

There were colouring tables,

and a barn to play with.

I remember making these potholders when I was a kid.

There were 5 large tents for vendors.

Predictably, there were several vendors of spinning wheels and accessories.

There were several needle felters there. I was intrigued by this vest that had needle felted dots

with embroidered stitches around each one. This would also make a great pillow cover.

There were lots of angora bunnies for sale. This one had a short coat.

These 'babydoll' sheep are very small.  It would be fun to have one in my back yard. I'm not sure how good their fleeces are for spinning though.

Another vendor sold finger puppets. This was my favourite one.

One could even purchase an Icelandic sheep.

Another gifted needle felter created pieces on wool tweed backgrounds and many bird species.

Here she is crafting a blue jay using a birding guide as a reference.

One of my favourite fibres to spin is that of the Blue-faced Leicester sheep. This one has several months to go before it will be shorn.

The food trucks were excellent. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the Artichoke French truck. And NO LINEUP!!!  At Rhinebeck I could never get close to them at lunch time and there was a significant wait for service at last year's MDSWF.

I ordered the Arti - a combo of Artichoke French and deep fried-artichoke hearts. They're served with a garlicky mayo dressing with a shot of hot sauce. YUM!!!

Next to them was a vendor selling Philadelphia-style, home-made ice-cream and sorbet. I had to try the mango sorbet. It was nice and mango-y and not too sweet.

While I was at the Festival, Skip was driving golf balls at a nearby driving range. He didn't have too much trouble finding me back at the Festival. He ate a brisket 'sundae' where cole slaw and brisket are layered in a big Solo cup. Once can also get a pulled pork sundae and also find layers of beans and pickles but Skip declined those options.

On the way to the CNYFF, we happened upon a historic little town, Peterboro NY, 'one of the most historic towns in NY state that you're never heard of'.

This weekend is their annual Civil War Weekend.

This was on our route to Bouckville.

We decided to stop and check it out when we heard the blast of a cannon. We quickly parked the car around the corner and walked back to the park where the event was taking place. These gorgeous peonies were in full bloom. I'd love to get some of these for my garden.

Across the street from the church was the Smithville Community Center that was saved from demolition about 30 years ago by a local family.

The admission fee to the Civil War event is used to maintain the community centre.

This is what we could see from the sidewalk. The participants live and sleep here for the whole weekend, rain or shine. Fortunately this year there was lots of sunshine.

The participants dress in costume.

At one o'clock there was going to be a skirmish. But we couldn't hang around for that - we had a fiber festival to get to. Maybe next year.